West Palm Declines To Rename Street In Honor Of Activist

March 8, 1988|By REBECCA THEIM, Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH -- City Commissioners on Monday decided the city can more appropriately and effectively memorialize civic activist T.J. Tucker than by renaming drug- and crime-plagued Tamarind Avenue after him.

While acknowledging the tremendous contributions Tucker made to the city, commissioners decided the inconvenience and cost associated with renaming the 2-mile street would be too much to ask of residents and businesses.

Tucker, 68, a Tamarind Avenue shop owner known for his drug-fighting campaigns, died of cancer on Dec. 7.

Commissioners also said that they would have been hard-pressed to honor the lone request, made by a longtime friend of Tucker`s, because there appeared to be very little community support for the change.

``Mr. Tucker had a tremendous impact while he was alive, and I think some of the things he did will live on even after his passing,`` commission member Jim Poole said. ``I don`t think it would be disrespectful to his memory because we have many pioneers and notable persons who have made contributions to our city for whom no street has been named.

``Based on the lack of popular support . . . I do not favor renaming Tamarind Avenue to T.J. Tucker Avenue.``

Commissioners, however, agreed that the city can memorialize Tucker by ensuring that the annual traditions he started will continue.

Tucker organized the annual ``No Dope Sold Today`` rally and the ``Tammi-Tuck Wrap-A-Thon,`` when he gave out Christmas gifts to thousands of children who received little else for Christmas.

``The best thing we can do is try to work with groups to carry on the good things that Mr. Tucker did, and I think that would be much more of a tribute, too,`` Mayor Rick Reikenis said.

Lauren Tucker said she was disappointed by the vote but encouraged that commissioners said they wanted to help memorialize her father in other ways.

She and her two sisters are working to establish a drug-treatment clinic in the neighborhood to be named after her father.

``In a way I`m disappointed, but renaming Tamarind really wouldn`t do anything -- it wouldn`t help anyone, which was what my father was all about,`` Lauren Tucker said.

``If they would help us establish the drug-treatment center, his memory would never be forgotten because so many people would be helped there.``